Scary European History Facts

<p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(102 102 102 1)>Europe's enlightened eras hid fangs sharper than any guillotine: Black Death's 1348 rampage stacking bodies like cordwood in London's lanes priests anointing the dying while fleas feasted unchecked turning taverns to tombs overnight. Inquisitors didn't debate-they dunked heretics in scalding oil or stretched limbs on racks till joints popped like bad bets confessions spilling for the sake of a quick end. These weren't outliers; they were the continent's pulse where a wrong glance at the stars could land you in a heresy hole and survival meant stepping over the bloating dead without a flinch. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(102 102 102 1)>Shift to the wilder fringes: Vikings didn't sail for silver alone-their axes cleaved monasteries at dawn Lindisfarne's monks dragged from altars to become thrall fodder sagas later romanticizing the slaughter. Roman arenas weren't games; they were abattoirs where lions tore Christians mid-prayer crowds cheering the spray as emperors picked thumbs-down like sour grapes. Medieval famines pushed the unthinkable-neighbors eyeing neighbors over stew pots whispers of long pig echoing from Irish cabins to German hamlets a grim math when the grain gods got greedy. Twentieth-century echoes bite deepest: Ypres' gas clouds choking doughboys in yellow fog trenches flooding with the drowned while rats grew fat on the fallen. </span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1); color: rgba(102 102 102 1)>Witch panics lit bonfires from Salem's shores to the Black Forest accusations flying like arrows till the innocent twisted in ropes. This book's a creaky-floorboard tour through it all-facts that prove Europe's glow came from embers of the unspeakable a reminder the past's monsters don't stay mummified.</span></p>